15781/Burning Tiger Returns

Burning Tiger Returns
Date of Scene:	03 September 2023
Location:	Hell's Kitchen
Synopsis:	The arsonist Burning Tiger strikes again. Aurora, Red Arrow and Daredevil rescue the office workers from the burning building.
Cast of Characters:	Matthew Murdock, Jeanne-Marie Beaubier, Emiko Queen

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Matthew Murdock has posed:
Daredevil's boots land on the rooftop, the soles muffling the noise after the red-garbed hero leaped the gap over an alley. Pausing there, he walks over to a corner of the roof. Focusing on his hearing primarily, he slowly works his way through the sounds of the city. Listening for any signs of problems in night time Hell's Kitchen that might require his attention.

Traffic noises are filtered through. People talking as they walk along the street. An argument within a building catches his notice, but it doesn't sound likely to turn violent.

Then Matt hears it. A cackling laughter that he's heard before. As he's trying to decide if it's definitely the arsonist that has become known as Burning Tiger, both for the mask he wears and for babbling about fire. The sound of a drone is what clinches it for him though. After Burning Tiger barely escaped Daredevil and other heroes, he had begun delivering his incendiary devices by small drones, before he'd disappeared after the last fire a few months ago.

Daredevil backs up and then runs, leaping across a street, grabbing a sign and swinging himself up to the roof and continuing on. Following the sounds of the drone, which is relaying small bombs over to an office building just a couple of blocks away.

Jeanne-Marie Beaubier has posed:
Aurora has absolutely little awareness of the Burning Tiger, and the danger he imposes on the neighborhood. She was actually in the area to discuss an upcoming shot with her photographer, their meeting has ended, and she choose to linger about. It wasn't for any specific reason, but she just couldn't go home just yet. It's quite the coincidence she was meandering in the direction of the building the Burning Tiger marked for his next strike.

Matthew Murdock has posed:
The little four-propeller drone buzzes over to the six story building. Slung beneath it is a little box. Reaching the window, the drone hovers there and the box pivots and then little mechanical arms slowly extend it forward. It hooks onto the window frame magnetically and is detached.

Daredevil is rushing forward, acrobatically roof-running as he rushes towards the sounds. He begins to hear a familiar voice as well.

"Sweet sweet flames. Crackling and growing. Need to be fed. Fed and nurtured. Sweet sweet fire."

Matt's teeth clamp down as the quiet fervor in the arsonist's voice grows over even the short course of spoken words. "Damn it, not going to make it in time," he says of any hopes to reach Burning Tiger before he sets off his devices.

And Daredevil is right. With a little cackle, Burning Tiger, in some trees in a park down the street, turns the key on his detonator to arm it, and hits the button. A half dozen small, fiery blasts leap into being along the walls of the building. Strategically placed where they will catch and grow!

Jeanne-Marie Beaubier has posed:
While Aurora herself isn't quite aware of her gift, a part of it does allow her to spot things faster than others might, and she feels like she saw something move up above her. She stops to look, studying that eerie sensation.

The time works perfectly so she catches sight of the explosion running along the wall of the building. It freezes her, the fear, the shock. But Aurora is more than just Aurora, and one of her alters takes to the front, to at the very least force a rescue.

While most flee the scene, or try and call for help in such a situation, she runs towards the building. But not just as an athlete might, her speed defies reason, as in the blink of an eye she's already inside, knocking on doors and yelling at people to go out should anyone be inside.

Matthew Murdock has posed:
The office building has different tenants on each floor. The fourth floor all belongs to one company, but the other floors each might sport anywhere from 2 to 5 different sets of offices.

It being Saturday night, a lot of them are vacant. But definitely not all. Even from outside, one can see a few lights on that might suggest someone is there. Or maybe that they just don't conserve energy by turning the lights off as they leave.

In the lobby there's a security guard. He was tilting back in his chair, feet up, reading a comic book when the sudden explosions nearly made him tip over in his chair backwards.

He gets to his feet, more of a stagger than a leap. He's a bit overweight, the uniform sagging on him as Aurora rushes through the door. Bits of flaming debris fall to the ground outside the window. "What happened?" he asks.

Meanwhile Daredevil is just a building away when the incendiary devices go off. He pauses just long enough to listen for the panicked voices of people in the building to pinpoint where people are, before making his final approach. Focusing on the building burning and the people who need saving, rather than being able to go after the arsonist.

Jeanne-Marie Beaubier has posed:
"Explosion, fire, no time...start an alarm, get people out," Anne explains before picking up the speed and rushing past him in a blur. She doesn't care for procedures, she needs to get people out of that building while it still stands. Naturally, she has no idea the extent of the damage, and whether it can bring the building down, but people are certainly at risk with fire spreading.

Emiko Queen has posed:
It was Saturday. Unfortunately crime and corruption didn't take weekends off. Explosions going off in an office building is a testimant to that.

But there are a few vigilantes on the prowl. Team Arrow has been slowly making a presence in Hell's Kitchen, and after the last assault on Phoenix Towers had been picking up the patrols. So when those explosions happen Red Arrow is out on the rooftops and not far away. Close enough that she can see the bursts through the windows as they go off. "There's always something," she ruminates mostly to herself.

She takes off, using her agility to parkour a few rooftops closer, drawing a grapple arrow as she does so and clamping it onto a wire. Once she gets to the last rooftop at that level she stops, stabs the anchor for the line into the building, and fires the arrow into the side of the office building. Then hops down to catch the line with her bow between her hands and ziplining down.

The office building has already had explosions and fire, so no one is going to care if she kicks out one of the windows at the end of the line to get inside. If anything it's making another ventway for smoke.

A duck and roll to take the landing and she's back up into a crouch, taking stock of where she landed and immeadiate situation.

Matthew Murdock has posed:
The guard runs over to pull down a fire alarm mounted on the wall. And then picks up the phone and begins dialing 911. "There's people upstairs... on... um, a few of the floors," he says. He really wasn't paying attention. The new Wonder Woman comic came out and was holding his gaze for most of the evening!

Daredevil hears the conversation down in the lobby, and also the unexpected sound of the zip line whirring and the glass shattering. "Hope everyone are heroes," he says as he makes the final leap across to the rooftop of the building which has flames quickly spreading through it. Daredevil sprints and then launches himself feet first, smashing through the cover of an air vent and sliding down it as an entry point.

Emiko Queen has posed:
It would seem Red Arrow has entered into one of the unoccupied offices. But when she glances out into the corridor she can see the glimps of smoke starting to collect in the air. She quickly darts out of the office, down the corridor a bit and into another one where the smoke is drifting from. Or she was going to, but just inside the doorway there was a pile of flaming debris, forcing her to backpedal a few steps to not crash right into it. Must be a portion of the ceiling that feel when a firebomb went off on a higher floor. People can be heard paniced on the other side.

"Calm down," she shouts, "help will be here shortly." Red Arrow takes back another step and knocks a tubular arrow into her bow. The team kept suppressive foam arrows as part of their regular arsenal for just such emergencies. A couple into the rubble pile results in a hiss as the flames are extinguished.

Then Red Arrow can step up and try to wedge some of the debris out of the way. It takes a few pulls and pushes, but while not superhuman she's abnormally strong for her slight build and is able to wedge enough of a clearing for people to climb through.

Jeanne-Marie Beaubier has posed:
The first few floors prove empty, but then Anne comes across the first populated offices, for the most part people heard the explosion and have no issue being persuaded to leave the building. But the higher she goes, she also finds some people who got knocked out by the blast, and she starts to provide a speedy evacauation service, taking people one by one and zooming them to the ground floor. Hopefully rescue teams from the fire department will be arriving soon to provide actual help.

Matthew Murdock has posed:
Matt Murdock comes out of a vent in the top floor. Burning Tiger knows a lot about the spread of flames, and he picked spots on the building that will make it catch and grow quite rapidly. Even as people try to make their own way down, they may find flames blocking their way.

A group of four employees working a late night phone bank are huddled at the door to their office. When Daredevil emerges from a doorway behind them, one of the women screams at first. He gestures for her to calm down. "I'm here to help," he says.

One of the men motions to the door. "The handle's hot, I think there's fire outside," he says. Daredevil tilts his head slightly, listening to the flames that are indeed filling the hallway outside.

"Ok, we're going to break a hole down to the floor below," he says, motioning for them to follow him. Daredevil stomps on the ground, listening and finding the spot that sounds weakest. Then he pulls out his baton and begins ramming it through the flooring. Below is a space for running cables, allowing him to quickly rip that layer up.

Emiko Queen has posed:
Red Arrow helps the two workers climb through the opening. Then points up. "Smoke. Stay low." She keeps her tone calm and neutral, which isn't hard to do with her training. "Get to the ground floor, use the stairs. Elevators are too dangerous."

Speaking of which, that is where she goes next. Getting stuck in an elevator would be a horrible death trap in this situation... but she knows paniced people tend to not think that clearly about such things.

Jeanne-Marie Beaubier has posed:
Anne proceeds to do what she can, eventually hearing the people coming from above down the stairs, and she goes about to check if anyone needs help or is too tired to make the trip. Offering her services to usher people the rest of the way.

Matthew Murdock has posed:
"Could really..."

*WHAM!*

"Use Power Man or..."

*WHAM*

"Iron Fist for this..."

*WHAM*

Daredevil batters away with his baton while talking to himself, ramming it into the flooring again and again, until finally it breaks through. It takes another few dozen impacts to widen it enough people can fit through.

By now the smoke is filling the room, people down on hands and knees. Daredevil lowers people one by one through the hole, dropping them the last few feet. Then finally following them down himself. Coughing, he leads the way, sensing the heat to avoid fire as they head for a stairwell, where Anne is herself checking on people.

Emiko Queen has posed:
Emiko Queen gets to the elevators, and after a bit of work using a sturdier reinforced arrow as a crowbar manages to pry the first set of doors open, finding the elevator on this floor. Good. Prying the second open reveals the lift a few floors down, hard to tell if it's stopped on a floor or from things shutting down with the emergency.

Can't risk it being the bad scenerios.

Red Arrow hops into the shaft, grabbing the lift cables and sliding down them to the top of the car, gloves protecting her hands from burns.

As soon as her feet thump on top of it the startled shout inside can be heard. Which gets a brief sigh from her as she crouchs down to find the access hatch most lifts have in the top for maintenance. "You do realize the elevator isn't very safe right now right?"

The response from inside is muffled but can be made out to some effect of there being a lot of smoke building on the higher floor and the way to the stairs blocked.

Then she gets the hatch open, and looks inside. "Okay, fair. Sometimes you need to take the dumb risks in an emergency." She finds a portly older office worker, probably a life timer by this point, inside. He probably might not of made it down the stairs anyways, but she doesn't comment as she drops in, and goes to get the doors open.

Jeanne-Marie Beaubier has posed:
The moment Anne spots Daredevil, an actual hero of considerable fame, at least in these parts, she nods at him and starts to withdraw. The fact she is wearing an every day getup of a shirt and leggings is enough to suggest she probably isn't a professional hero, and is more than happy to leave everything to the pros.

Matthew Murdock has posed:
Matt Murdock helps guide people down the stairwell. Thankfully the stairwells weren't directly targeted by Burning Tiger this time. That wasn't the case in the apartment building fire, when the heroes were literally dropping people out of windows to be caught or otherwise lowered down by powers in order to get everyone out!

Daredevil gives a wave to the woman that his heightened senses tell him was the one he heard helping others. He stops at each landing, pulling the door open just enough to listen for signs of anyone else on the floor. And he hears the elevator doors opening, passing through to that floor to help people out the elevator as Emiko pulls the doors open. "The stairs are down this way, need to get out quickly, stay low under the smoke," he tells people as he helps them out.

Emiko Queen has posed:
Emiko Queen gets the doors open, and is relieved to see the local vigilante on the other side. "Fancy meeting you here," she quips, even as she's helping the portly office man out since the elevator isn't quite to the level of the floor. But with Daredevil there to help guide him down. Then she slips out herself. "The other elevator was still up on the floor unusued."

There doesn't seem to be anyone else in immeadiate danger on the lower floors so she gets to helping guide the various people that have made it down here out.